North Shore sisters sell handmade pierogi

Jennie Oemig beverly@wickedlocal.com @BeverlyCitizen

Friday

Jul 8, 2016 at 1:10 PMJul 8, 2016 at 2:52 PM

On a warm Wednesday evening in late June, while the employees at Prime Meats & Provisions in North Beverly are busy cleaning up after a long day’s work, sisters Casey and Vanessa White could be found in the store's kitchen, packaging handmade pierogi that will be sold at a farmers’ market the very next day.

Everything from mashing the potatoes to rolling and cutting dough is done by hand. The sisters weigh, separate and package the pierogi by hand, as well. Everything down to the labels is handmade.

“We’re very grassroots right now,” Vanessa said of their business, Jaju Pierogi. “But, as we grow, that will change so we can become more efficient.”

The pair can usually make about 800 of the Polish dumplings per day.

“It takes about 10 hours including clean-up,” Vanessa said of their typical Sunday.

The pierogi come in a variety of flavors, including cabbage and mushroom, sweet potato and caramelized onion, potato and cheese and kielbasa.

“We continually make four main flavors,” said Casey, adding that they have also experimented with strawberry and cheese and pineapple and cheese pierogi at the Somerville farmers’ market. “Some people are super willing to try them, but they’re not always super popular.”

Each six-pack of pierogi sells for $8.

Getting started

“We grew up in Western Massachusetts,” said Vanessa. “Our grandfather had started a Polish food shop where he would make kielbasa, pierogi and golumpki, which are stuffed cabbage rolls. While we were growing up, we would go [to the shop] and help out.”

Vanessa, who now lives in Beverly, attended college at Tufts University in Medford, while Casey, now a Somerville resident, attended Bentley University in Waltham.

While away at school, Vanessa said she and her sister never had a shortage of pierogi; their mother would make sure they had an ample supply.

“We got to thinking that we really should carry on our family’s legacy,” said Vanessa.

“We tinkered with the recipe a little bit,” Vanessa said. “In the winter, we set up a meeting with friends to see what they thought. Then, we tinkered some more.”

When deciding upon a name for their product, the ladies settled on Jaju Pierogi. Jaju is the Americanized pronunciation of the Polish word for grandfather.

Community minded

While perfecting their grandfather’s recipes, Vanessa said she and her sister explored community kitchen space, which turned out to be quite expensive. The White sisters eventually approached the manager at Prime Meats, who agreed to let them use the kitchen periodically — mainly on Sundays.

“Beverly is really, really great with small businesses,” Vanessa said. “There are lots of people willing to help out to get you started.”

Jaju Pierogi can be found at farmers’ markets around the North Shore, including in Stoneham, Melrose and Somerville.

“We’re at a market almost every Saturday,” Vanessa said. “Somerville is very competitive, so we took on a big commitment there. We’re also in Stoneham once a month.”

Just last month, Casey and Vanessa made an appearance at Gentile Brewing Company on Park Street.

“It was so busy,” Vanessa recalled. “We love being involved in the community. We’d love to get involved in Arts Fest … We’ve also become very passionate about the local food scene.”

Vanessa and Casey have even gone so far as to locally source the ingredients for their pierogi.

Vanessa and Casey are very proud of how far they’ve come and are extremely thankful to have found a kitchen in the Beverly community. However, they are planning on relocating their operation to Essex in the very near future.

After making the move, Vanessa and Casey will also be looking into acquiring a wholesale license so they can continue to grow their family-oriented business.

“This is going to sound corny, but the best part for me is that we really didn’t hang out a lot,” Vanessa said of she and Casey’s relationship. “Now, we see each other four or five days a week. And we often talk about what our grandfather would say … He was a really big role model for us in terms of work ethic.”

Vanessa said the primary focus right now is to become a successful Boston-area business.

“We never want to take our personal touch away from our product,” she said, adding that, as the business continues to grow, she and Casey will likely upgrade their equipment and hire some more people to help out with production. “But, we have no plans to manufacture at a large scale.”

For more information about Jaju Pierogi, or to view a list of upcoming farmers’ market at which they will appear, visit jajupierogi.com.

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